'Devastated' Conn client took own life

Emma Burchett’s husband, Leroy Burchett, killed himself on June 1, a few days after learning his disability benefits would be cut off because of alleged fraud by doctors who worked for attorney Eric Conn. The benefits were temporarily reinstated three days later.(Photo: Andrew Wolfson/The Courier-Journal)Buy Photo

IVEL, Ky. – They met 15 years ago at the Double Kwik in Harold, Ky., where she was a cashier and he was a customer.

Emma Burchett said Leroy was so shy he sent his niece in to get her phone number. They went out that night for dinner and never spent another day apart.

She inherited three children from his first marriage and they had two more together. He supported the family, working in production at a small-town newspaper until about six years ago when he injured his neck and back and had two discs removed, leaving him unable to work, she said.

He went to Eric Conn's office, about five miles from his home, because, she said, "Eric Conn gets Social Security for everyone, everybody knows that." He began collecting a disability check of $1,063 a month.

But on May 22, he was fishing at the family's pay lake when a letter arrived from the Social Security Administration. His benefits were being suspended because of suspected fraud by Conn and his doctors.

"He was devastated," she said. "He thought there was no way we were going to have money to pay for his medications for high blood pressure, pain, high cholesterol and depression."

Burchett herself was recovering from a hysterectomy two years ago, and a double mastectomy last year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she said. They had three minor children still at home.

"He talked about taking his life — I told him it's not hopeless," she said. "We are going to get this fixed. I told him don't quit on me. But he wouldn't get out of bed."

On June 1, he grew extremely agitated, she said. He said he couldn't take it anymore. She took one pistol away from him, but he drew another and shot himself in the chin in the yard in front of their home. He died a couple of hours later at Pikeville Medical Center.

The Social Security Administration reinstated benefits to all of Conn's former clients three days later, after U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers pleaded that it was literally a life and death matter.

Burchett has sued the Social Security Administration and Conn, saying in a complaint that both "played a substantial role" in causing the wrongful death of LeRoy Burchett. All of the damages were "proximately caused by the fraudulent activities" of Conn, which prompted the suspension of benefits to Burchett and others, her suit says.

Conn's lawyers said Burchett's suicide could not have been foreseen, and other attorneys noted that he already was being treated for depression before his benefits were cut off.

Emma Burchett said she blames the agency but Conn more so.

"If he hadn't been doing the things the way he did, none of this would have happened," she said in an interview in which she frequently broke into tears.